University of Michigan Institute for Social Research awards $137,000 in fellowships

The Institute for Social Research (ISR) at the University of Michigan recently awarded
$137,000 in fellowships intended to support innovative social science research at the
university.

The Robert Kahn Fellowship for the Scientific Study of Social Issues was awarded to
Lisa Marchiondo, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology. Marchiondo is
investigating antisocial behavior in the context of organizations and employment.

The Daniel Katz Dissertation Fellowship in Psychology was awarded to Nina
Strohminger, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology. Strohminger is
examining the role of disgust in humor and aesthetic appreciation.

The Elizabeth Douvan Junior Scholars Award in Life Course Development was awarded
to Nicola Newton, who just completed her Ph.D. in Psychology. Newton is researching
the health, well-being, and social networks of older non-married women.

The Innovation in Social Research Fellowship was awarded to Abraham Gong, a
doctoral student in Public Policy and Political Science. Gong is describing the political
blogosphere and attempting to explain why people engage in political blogging, and what
this says about political participation.

The Charles Cannell Fund in Survey Methodology granted awards to Jessica Broome and
Brady West, both doctoral candidates in the Michigan Program in Survey Methodology.
Broome is examining the impact of interviewer speech and vocal characteristics on
obtaining interviews and on interviewer response rates. West is studying characteristics
that influence the accuracy of interviewers who collect observations in face-to-face
interviews.

The Roy Pierce Scholars Fund was awarded to two pairs of researchers from the
Department of Political Science. James Atkinson and Brian Min are examining the
impact of core and swing voter distributions and the number of political parties in a
country on the provision of public goods. Tim Ryan and Ted Brader are exploring why
citizens sometimes seek out information to confirm their own partisan points of view
and other times do not by exposing Internet users to randomized ads designed to elicit
different emotions.

The A. Regula Herzog Young Investigators Fund of the Survey Research Center granted
an award to Joanne Hsu, a doctoral student in the Department of Economics. Hsu is
researching how people formulate their expectations of future cognitive decline, and how
a household’s management of finances changes in response to the cognitive decline and
impairment of one of its members.